


slow motion fridays

by snsk



Series: 30 min request thing [3]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Established Relationship, Future Fic, Kids, M/M, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-24 00:07:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8348239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snsk/pseuds/snsk
Summary: Alex had been acting out, all day, defiantly spilled broccoli onto the tabletop at lunch and turned a deaf ear to Dan’s attempts to get him to do homework, and the last straw was pulling at Isla’s hair and making her cry at the bakery, and when Dan had exasperatedly said, “Alex,” he’d shouted back, “What,” and stomped out of the place, and Dan had kind of wanted to sob just as loud as Isla.(for the anon who requested:--More parent phan tings like them going out for a day with the kiddos and chaos happening bc little ones and dan and phil would probs involve chaos even with dan being super cautious---Them finally getting alone time after one of their parents/friends takes their kiddos for a weekend and they plan on using the time for sex (they still can) but it mostly just ends up them being lazy and cute and nostalgic wth each other)





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is kind of a ficlet set somewhere during fast forward years, but can be read as a standalone.

Dan loved being a parent.

He did. Out of all the jobs he’d undertaken in his life, the things he’d studied, the choices he’d made, this made the most sense; this was the most instantly rewarding; this, the most, felt like what he did was worth it; this was one thing he figured he wasn’t fucking up too bad, not with Phil by his side. He loved watching Isla smile up at him, one small fist grabbing at whatever parts of him she could reach. He loved Alex’s piping chatter as he told him about how he’d swung _higher_ and _faster_ than anyone at the monkey bars today. He loved picking up after them, he loved bathing them, he loved making their lunches, checking the temperature of the milk against his wrist, he was _in love_ with being the lame dad who cheered at their first football games and ballet recitals.

Right now, though, he kind of needed a time out, much like the one he’d ordered Alex to the corner in order to accomplish. Alex had been acting out, all day, defiantly spilled broccoli onto the tabletop at lunch and turned a deaf ear to Dan’s attempts to get him to do homework, and the last straw was pulling at Isla’s hair and making her cry at the bakery, and when Dan had exasperatedly said, “ _Alex_ ,” he’d shouted back, “ _What_ ,” and stomped out of the place, and Dan had kind of wanted to sob just as loud as Isla.

The kind woman at the bakery shot him a sympathetic look and added a cookie to his paper bag, so Dan kept the tears in and collected Alex, sulking mutinously outside, and they all drove home silently. Even Isla was quiet, appeased with a lollipop Dan felt he shouldn’t really have given her as Phil had been feeding her quite enough sugar recently, but really, really, anything was better than her screaming her head off in the car. She had the lung endurance of an Olympic swimmer. He wished Phil would come home.

Alex didn’t help with the groceries; he raced into the house and sank stubbornly onto the sofa. Dan didn’t have the energy to make him do anything at that moment, so he balanced Isla on one hip and staggered under the weight of their grocery bags with the other hand. He placed Isla in her cot and everything else in their proper cupboards and cabinets and then went into the lounge and said, “Alex, fifteen minute time-out, please,” and Alex, merciful Jesus, scowled but went, crossing his arms, facing the wall. And then Isla began to whine for her bottle, or her _meewuk_ , as she called it, so Dan went to see to that as well.

And then he pinched the bridge of his nose and took a few deep breaths. He pulled out his phone; Phil had texted: _around 8, their flight got delayed a bit,_ which was two hours later than expected. That was fine. It was fine. Then Phil and his parents would be here, and the day after that they would have a whole weekend’s time out. A nice hotel room and more long, drawn-out sex than he’d had in ages. He could do two hours.

Something made him glance up, then, and he noticed the hunched set of Alex’s shoulders. It had only been seven minutes, really, but something about the slightly drooping, sulky, line of his back struck Dan, and before he knew it he’d gone to his son.

“Hey, buddy,” he said, and dropped to his knees, scooped him into his arms. Alex gave a half-hearted wriggle, then sort of gave up, and buried his face into Dan’s shoulder, hanging on.

Dan would never stop being amazed at the feeling of a child clinging onto you, that feeling of implacable trust in you, that feeling of love that threatened to reach up into your throat and suffocate you in the best way. They were so small, and they deserved so much. He reached up to ruffle Alex’s hair. “Buddy, buddy,” he said, and Alex kept his face there, against the collar of Dan’s jacket. “Love, what’s wrong?”

Alex sort of shrugged.

“Bad day at school?” Dan asked, and Alex shook his head. “Okay, buddy, I got you.”

They stood there a moment.

“There was a dog, back at Whitehall,” Alex said, eventually, muffled against Dan’s shoulder. Whitehall was where Alex had been, before he’d come to live with Dan and Phil. “Horace. I missed him a lot today. I don’t know. I don’t miss anything else there, but I miss him.”

“Oh,” Dan said. “Oh, Alex. Come here.”

He lifted Alex and carried him to the sofa, the way Alex had said he was _getting too old for, Dad, thanks,_ a few months ago. He set him down, and kissed his hair, and crouched down so they were eye-level and told him, “We can go visit Horace, okay? If you want.”

“I don’t want to-”

“Just to visit Horace, and then back home,” Dan said, because he would never stop making that promise, because Alex still needed that reassurance, almost two years on. “And only if you want. And whenever you want, and we’ll be right there.”

Alex’s serious melted-wood eyes met his, for a long moment, and then he said, “I’m sorry, Dad,” all small, and his gangly brown arms encircled Dan’s neck.

“S’alright, love,” Dan said, gathering him up again, close. “You want some mac’n’cheese?” which was Alex’s comfort food.

“Yeah,” Alex decided. “I’ll help.”

Which was how Phil and his parents found them, two hours later, watching TV with their bowls balanced on their laps, Isla gleefully shrieking at being allowed a lick of Dan’s spoon every once in a while.

“ _Hi_ , my darlings,” Phil’s mum said, and Alex jumped off the sofa and went to his papa and grandmother, and Isla tried to follow and almost overbalanced over the back of the sofa, and Phil’s dad went to catch her and Phil went to Dan.

“I see the house is still intact,” he said, and pressed a kiss to Dan’s temple. “How’d you do without me for two days?”

“Better than you’d do without me,” Dan retorted affectionately, and felt Phil inhale the scent of his skin in agreement, like the weirdo he was.

 

It’d been so long since Dan had been in a hotel room, luxurious thread-counted sheets and soothing, almost too-quiet calm. He stretched out on the bed lazily, shirt riding as he yawned, and watched his husband drop their bags, his eyes gone all heavy-lidded, reveled in the fact that it had been so long and he still had this effect on Phil Lester.

“Well?” Dan asked, a bit impatient about it, because that was what Phil liked, and Phil almost tripped over the bags he’d dropped in his haste to clamber onto the bed and start kissing him, warm and slick and familiar, the way they knew by more than heart, was just reflexive, beloved and memorised movement by now.

Phil got his warm hand under Dan’s shirt; Dan had all his fingers in Phil’s hair. They were sloppy about it already because it had been a long time; Phil was already reaching towards the button of Dan’s pants; this first time tonight would go almost-hasty to pave the way for the next sweeter, more thorough times.

Dan was already making needy noises that signified Phil should hurry and stop necking at his throat, thank you very much, when Phil’s phone rang. His ringtone for his mum.

They exchanged glances. Phil pulled his hand out from Dan’s boxers, wiped it quickly on Dan’s shirt, to his indignant squawk, and answered it.

“Mum?” he said, and put it on speaker. “Is everything okay?”

“Hi, darling,” she said. There was a rather overlong pause where they almost panicked, looking at each other again, and then she said, “Oh, everything’s fine, I just wanted to check in and tell you that and also Isla said the most adorable thing just now, I put the phone to her ear but she didn’t say it again! Isla, honey, say _smaw kittytat_ for Daddy and Papa? Please?”

Another pause, in which Dan assumed Isla was silently and stubbornly refusing to indulge the parents who’d abandoned her for the night. Phil’s expression was amused and a bit exasperated; “Mum,” he said, then, “Mum!”

“Yes, darling,” she said, finally coming back on. “Oh, dear, I’ll call you when she says it again. Do you want to speak to Alex again?”

“Okay, Mum,” Phil said.

“Papa?” Alex said. “Daddy? Haven’t we already said goodnight?”

“I believe so, Alex,” Phil said. “Oh well. Once more for luck. Are you being good for Gran and Granddad?”

“Yes, Papa,” Alex said.

“We’ll be back soon,” Dan reminded.

“Yes, Dad,” Alex agreed.

“We love you!” Phil told him.

“Love you guys too,” Alex said, long-sufferingly, and passed the phone back to his grandmother, who assured them again that she’d call as soon as Isla uttered that magnificently adorable phrase again. Phil said, “Yes, yes thank you Mum, yes we will, love you Mum,” and then flopped down onto the pillow.

Dan giggled, a bit, beside him. It was possible that he was totally in love with being a parent, and had finally found his life’s calling, and the meaning of the universe.

Then he wanted to suck on Phil’s ear, and roam his palm over his nipples to see where that would lead, so he did, because he was incredibly in love with being this man’s husband as well.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on snsknene on tumblr and curiouscat to send me more of these prompteroos


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